The Safe Kid and the Troublemaker
by Tom-SA-Savage
Summary: Originally, I wanted to make more out of this, but decided to just keep it as a one-off. Also, WHY ISN'T JANNA LISTED AS A CHARACTER? She is popular enough. Anywho, I hope you enjoy it.


**The Safe Kid and the Troublemaker**

 _One-off_

Echo Creek ususally is a quiet place, especially at night. The streetlights illuminate the suburban area as the city's residents prepare for tomorrow. Sometimes, the streetlights are turned off due to the rarity of someone walking down the sidewalk since Echo Creek is such a miniscule city where everybody knows everybody and their grandmother's cat. However, on this serene time, a lonely soul roams this night.

The girl strolls with her head down, her eyes down at the sidewalk. From a faraway glance, this girl would be mistaken for a boy due to her olive green beanie covering her short, black hair. The girl's shirt matches her beanie, but is covered by a baby blue cardigan. Judging by her pace, she is trying to get somewhere and get there as soon as possible. It also seems that she knows exactly where she is going, as evidenced by how she sparingly looks up from her brown boots.

"Please don't be awake," the girl mutters to herself in a fearful tone.

After a few minutes of walking down the streets of Echo Creek, she stops at a rather peculiar house. The lawn is decorated with cacti and silly lawn decorations. Overall, nothing out of the ordinary, unless you account for the castle-esque tower sticking out of the left side of the house. The beanie-headed girl sprints to the porch and puts her ear to the door. Ten seconds later, she reassures herself that the homeowners are asleep and is now the time to work her magic.

The girl grabs house keys from her butter yellow skirt and slowly opens the door.

"I still got your keys, Diaz," the girl cackles. "But not for long."

The intruder climbs upstairs quietly, and enters a room labeled as MARCO, where the namesake of the room is laying in bed, dead asleep. Although the darkness of the room restricts the view of the resting boy, his face can be seen by the moonlight. The black-haired girl tiptoes closer to the boy, looking down on the floor to not trip on anything. Knowing the boy's mannerisms beforehand, she knows that the floor is so clean you can eat from it.

As the burglar gets closer to the boy, a nauseous feeling attacks her stomach. The attacks reach it peak once the girl stands above the sleeping boy. Just looking at him in the moonlight makes her desire to go for a kiss; however, that would blow her cover and create the most awkward moment in her entire teenage life. So the intruder decides to resist her urges and complete her discreet mission.

The girl then puts the house keys on his nightstand and starts to take her leave, but trips on a glowing vacuum cleaner and falls on the floor with a booming thud. How she completely missed that is a little baffling considering that it is glowing and floating above ground level. Despite the loud noise, the boy is still asleep as if nothing happened. The intruder looks back and gives a wondered glance.

"Man, Marco sure is a heavy sleeper," the girl says to herself in an inside voice.

"Huh, who said that?"

Apparently, Marco was not as heavy as a sleeper as previously thought. He snaps up and advances on the intruder. Marco then enters his fighting stance and stands still like a python ready to strike. The girl throws her arms in the air, but releases an air of flirtation.

"Hold on, van Damme! It's me, Janna!"

The karate kid eases up, but the intesity does not escape his face.

"Janna? What are you doing in my room? It's like 3 in the morning."

"So you don't want your house keys back? Okay, I'll just take them back and-"

"Wait, you still have my keys?"

"Well, not ON me. Check your nightstand."

"This better not be some joke," Marco turns around and searches the top of the nightstand, only for Janna to be not be teasing for once.

"Why couldn't you have waited until tomorrow," he sighs.

"It technically is Monday, unless you wanted them on Tues-"

"I meant in the morning."

"Because that wouldn't be as eventful as right now."

"You are weird, Janna," A puzzled Marco says and tries to escort Janna out of the house, but Janna refuses to cooperate. Instead she flops on his bed and starts whistling. Marco sighs of frustration and points to the door like beckoning a dog.

"Wow, this is a really comfortable bed. Don't worry, Diaz. I'll leave you a spot on here so we can both rest up for school."

"You have five seconds to get out of my bed or else I will get Star in here, and she is not nice when woken up."

"Typical Marco," Janna gets up from the bed and starts to leave the room. "Always mentions other girls when presented with one right in his face. And I thought I was a tease!"

"Just go home, Janna."

"Alright, but you still need me, because I've got your wallet," Janna whips out a black wallet with a KarateKon 2012 patch and then runs away before Marco snatches her.

Why me, thinks Marco as he retires to the sack. Janna has always been a pebble in Marco's shoe ever since the two were in kindergarten, when she used to swipe his crayons. She also told Jackie Lynn Thomas of his apparent crush (but thankfully, Jackie forgot that ever happened). In a way, Janna reminds Marco of Star Butterfly in a certain way; both are minor annoyances, but at least Star means well and has saved his butt mutiple times. Janna just makes things more complicated and carries an aura of mystique that worries Marco more than whatever stuff happens in other dimensions from Ludo to Toffee. Of all the things Marco has experienced, Janna is the most puzzling person he has ever met. So puzzling to the point where he might need a new wallet.

As Janna walks out off the property, she faces the Diaz residence. A sickening feeling attacks her stomach and her grin from before turns into a frown. She sighs loudly as the stars shine from the black sky. Suddenly, a shooting star zips by. Despite the possibilities of a wish, Janna does not react surprised as she should. Instead, she takes a deep breath and exhales in order to shake off the nerves.

"I wish," Janna blurts, but cuts herself off, swallows and goes where she left off.

"I wish Marco Diaz the best. Whether it's Star or Jackie, heck even Ferguson or Alfonzo if he swings that way. I can accept the fact that he hates my guts, only for me to be attracted to such a sweet and pure boy. As long as he is enjoying life, it will bring happiness to me."

Janna then starts to walk away. She hopes to heaven no one else heard what she said. The emotional truth spills tears on her face as home is just a few blocks away.


End file.
